C@ribNET – a step in the right direction for CARICOM says Secretary General LaRocque

(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana)     Secretary General of the Caribbean Community Ambassador Irwin LaRocque has stated that C@ribNET was a step in the right direction for CARICOM.  He was speaking to Ministers and delegates at the opening ceremony for the forty-eighth (48th) Special Meeting of the Council on Trade and Economic Integration (COTED) on Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in Grand Anse Grenada on Friday.
C@ribNet is a high capacity broadband research and education network implemented by the Caribbean Knowledge and Learning Network Agency (CKLNA).
The Secretary General noted that a successful digital economy was  hinged on CARICOM’s ability to harness Research, Innovation and Education, and C@ribNET, if utilised fully could facilitate advancement in those areas and other sectors such as health.
“Mechanisms must be put in place to take advantage at the national level of the possibilities offered via C@ribNET. Thus C@ribNET should be celebrated as a Regional ‘win’ and a public good” said Ambassador LaRocque.
He noted that although ICT development was slow in some CARICOM countries, a Regional Digital Development Strategy with an accompanying Action Plan for implementation has been designed to help rectify this situation.
He explained further that in the Regional Digital Development Strategy, there was a role for regional institutions and the private sector.  He said some of those institutions such as the Caribbean Telecommunications Union (CTU), CARICAD, and CXC along with the regional universities were already engaged in initiatives which would assist in achieving the objectives of the strategy.